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What's up with the Par Vial - the construction downtown Cabo San Lucas?

(posted on 12 Nov 2009)

Meeting with Francisco Rincon of Par Vial for the Baja Business People Meeting on November 7th at Scoop Supper Club

(For more on the Baja Business People Meetings, go to http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/BBPMeetings/?yguid=253102909)

Well, this time, Mr. Rincon did show up for the meeting, equipped with a lap top and the intention of giving the 50 + people in attendance a power point presentation on the conclusion of the Par Vial project. He had been a no-show at our last meeting in July, because his assistant never told him about it, he said.

But showed up he did. Energy was high, the place was buzzing. The presentation he intended to give us centered on the questions the BBP sent all of you with the invite.

He started by explaining that he is only the PR for the Par Vial and has basically no say in its management. His boss is Javier Morales – maybe we should have had him there. Mr. Rincon no sooner started speaking than hands shot up, and questions went flying.

At one point, he said that he had been doing a lot of presentations about the project and is used to animosity and aggressive questioning from audiences. We tried to keep everybody polite and mostly succeeded. In a nut shell though, here are the answers he provided.

Traffic lights: a company from Mexico city will be coming shortly to install and synchronize them, then they’ll be in the hand of our city government
Trash receptacles: city’s job
Security: city’s job
Tourist police: where are they? The city should answer that
Parking on the streets: will we still be able to park on one side of the street downtown? Transito Police’s job = city’s job
Is there a plan for routine cleaning of the streets and sidewalks: see above
When will you fix the horribly uneven sidewalks and open or wobbly registros? Ditto
Did the budget run significantly over? Here we got into some numbers. There is some money left over which will be used to re-finish 2 more streets – Hidalgo and Madero – in September 2010. (Damn. So, it’s not over, then? Not quite)
Why did it take so long? Why were they not working 3 shifts a day to get it done sooner? I think this was the most significant answer he gave us that night: IT TOOK TOO LONG FOR THE COMMUNITY TO COMPLAIN. Official complaints from local architect organizations, business owners, business bureaux, and the local press were not filed until about 3 months ago, at which point they kicked into higher gear.

So the state government’s job is “mostly” done and it’s all in the city governments hands now. We will soon know if claims of substandard material and botched jobs with the sewage, water, phone and electrical modernizations are well-founded or not.

Par Vial – which is intended to mean a circuitous traffic flow around Cabo San Lucas’ downtown area, up Lazaro Cardenas, down Marina Boulevard – may well have been a necessity. But was it worth all the aggravation and suffering – both in dire inconveniences and in losses in business revenues and in entire businesses – or is it a white elephant that will end up costing us again enormous emotional and financial pains?

Only time will tell, but this time we need to remember Mr. Rincon’s comments and rally together as a community and be heard.